Stumbling
Block
Mark CunliffeGuy Block hated tutorials.
A long spring afternoon was laid out in front of him with nothing
but a depressing wave upon wave of snivelling students demanding
his full and earnest attention.
It wasnt fair.

He wanted to be in the pub. That nice new one down the road from the campus,
the one where every barmaid seemed to be bursting out of their tops.
Whats the collective noun?
An uplift of barmaids?
Yes, Guy liked that.
Instead he would have to sit here with the pale and unwashed, malnourished
student life.
A shadow of Goths.
A pain of Emos.

A tentative knock was heard at the door and Guy with a sigh, beckoned
the owner of the knock in.
Daisy Pythian entered just as tentatively as her knock was. A slim and
slight girl with round spectacles and long hair that resembled parted
curtains from her face, Guy recalled that she had not unattractive growing
buds under her green peace shirt and a rather cute dumpy boyish bottom
under her tie-dyed baggy jeans. A shy smile broke out across her features
as she took a seat opposite Guy and breathily she placed her paperwork
on the desk, unhooking her bulging bag from her shoulder at the same time.
Guy Block raised a quizzical eyebrow, the international body language
movement for how can I help?
Daisy Pythian had clearly not studied international body language at the
same place as Guy for she instead smiled a bit more broadly, let out another
breathy shy laugh and placed a hand above her eye to remove the stray
hair that was falling into her vision.
"Well" Guy drawled
"Yes fine thanks" Daisy near whispered
"No" dear God, "I mean, what can I do for you?"
Daisys mouth shaped the perfect O and with another breathy
giggle proceeded to flick through the papers in front of her. "Well,
its about my last assignment" she started.

But Guy didnt need to listen any further for he knew what was about
to come next. Guy had failed Daisys last assignment; the poor girl
clearly didnt grasp the nature of what was required and so, our
survey said, sod off. Now she had come in to ask him to go through it
and possibly even reconsider.
Why are students so unoriginal?
"And so I wonder if maybe you could reconsider my mark?" she
concluded, an apprehensive little finger touched at her slightly acne-ed
chin. Exactly as predicted.
I thank you.

Guy leaned further across the desk and took in her large doe eyes from
behind her spectacles. She had rather nice eyes, Guy thought, with a small
twitch of the head as he took them in, nice inky pools, inviting to take
in her soul. It was the first time hed noticed them.
Guy became aware that he had been staring and the little trademark husky
laugh emitted once more from Daisy.
"Ah look, the thing is Daisy, well, your assignment wasnt really
up to scratch yknow? At this level at this time into the course
I would expect better from my students ysee? And frankly well I
know I know you can do better on a second attempt" He said
and then put on the caring smile that he had perfected, along with a little
nod of the head that had served him so well in his thirty plus years of
lecturing.
"It was my second attempt" Daisy replied
"Ah"Bugger
Guy was about to begin to say something but was cut short by Daisy
"You see the thing is Prof Block, I was talking to Amy and she said
that she had struggled with this essay to and that after a special tutorial
with you she had managed to get you to look at it again in a different
light and that you, well, you saw your way clear to revising your original
mark"
"I did?" Said Guy wracking his brains.
"Oh yes" replied Daisy conspiratorially.

Guy twitched his head back a couple of times as he took in the full effect
of what was being said. Amy? Amy? His brain began to search through its
data Ah .ooh Amy Bennett, yes, tall girl from Bradford,
large erm, well yes. Very flighty. Wonderful smirk, and much more besides.
Yes we did see things in a different light rather, Guy thought, a slight
happy twitch played out on his lips at the memory.
Maybe the afternoon wasnt going to be as dull as he expected.
He looked again at Daisy Pythian quizzically.

Road
Block
Mark CunliffeAs Guy Block walked briskly across the windswept concrete square
that was optimistically called a piazza at an incredibly
early hour of the day he knew that what lay ahead for him did not bode
well. Mind
Block: Guy Block gets some libido therapy
Mark CunliffeBlock Out
Mark CunliffeIt
was a crisp January morning at Trenton University.
All was normalBlock Party
Mark CunliffeGuy Block knew it was going to be a bad night out.